9 Ways to Tell Someone's Been Coworking

They set deadlines around bizarre daily rituals. You’ll often hear things around a coworking space not typical of a normal office such as, “I need to get this done before the next cup of coffee,” or, “I’ve got to get all these e-mails out so that I have time to get food and make it home for Glee.” Without typical time constraints coworkers are able to plan their day around pretty much anything they want, and they take advantage while oddly staying super productive.

They’ve already had a warm up before they get to the office and are ready to dive into their work immediately. Whether it be biking to work or trudging through the snow coworkers have their heart pumping when they walk in the door. Without the constraints of having to drive in rush hour, or having a pile of busy work on their desk they start every day with a clean slate and a sharp mind.

They’ve conquered social media. Not only is social media a tool that freelancers must use intelligently to promote themselves and their businesses, but they also seem to have an innate ability to not be distracted by their friends on Facebook. Maybe because they have friends all around them, or maybe it’s because they know no ones stopping them from getting on at any point in time; either way coworking helps to harness the good of social media and leave the bad for when they’re home and have had a few glasses of wine.

They all of the sudden develop new tastes and interests almost every week. If you’re living with someone who has been coworking and you haven’t been, one thing will become increasingly apparent: They’ve become cooler than you. In the time in between working and discussing projects, coworkers don’t waste time with just any brand of small talk. You will be getting the absolute best from the Web, TV, Netflix, and more just sitting in on a discussion a few minutes. It’s like The Soup but without talk about Kardashian sisters or Ryan Seacrest. Plus anything that is added to a menu anywhere in town has already been tried by one of the members and there’s a guarantee they will have a review.

They’ve forgotten what “wasting time” even looked like. People are creatures of habit, and if you give them mindless busy work, that will carry into other things that they do. Coworkers however, are life enthusiasts and make the most out of the time they have outside of working and have eliminated tedious busy work for themselves while they’re at the office. That means when they’re working they are always going 100% just like all the other aspects of their lives.

They tend to shout out urgent questions while staring at their computer, expecting someone around them to be knowledgeable. A tragic flaw of coworking. Once you’ve come to expect being able to just ask a question out loud and get a quick and accurate answer from somewhere in the room, you’ll begin to expect that in every room you enter. On the occasion a coworker takes their talents to a coffee shop they may not realize they’d said anything at all until they look up and see everyone staring at them, or hearing people whispering, “what’s up with the girl that keeps shouting out questions about grammar usage?”

They’ve become experts at giving their “elevator speech” without sounding like a salesman. Coworkers don’t need to sell themselves with a colorful or elaborate elevator speech. They know exactly what they can do for you and exactly how long it will take them within a few minutes of meeting you and hearing about your business.

Their spirits have been mended from being in the mainstream business world, and they tend to smile throughout the day. Coworkers smile before, after and during work. The same way buff body builders flex their core through every exercise, coworkers have “ripped” smiling muscles and rarely go more than about ten minutes without cracking one.

They’ve become amateur meteorologists in planning their weekly schedule. Coworkers know what the weather is going to be like the whole week. Tabulating trends and always staying updated on the latest weather news is key to planning their schedule each and every week. If they’re going to get snowed in then they’ll stay home and take phone calls, if it’s just going to be freezing cold, there are not a lot of places much warmer than a full and buzzing coworking space.